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Windows XP running EXTREMLEY slow

I seem to have come across a major problem that has me entertaining the idea of formatting my hard drive and reinstalling Windows XP Pro.

Just a few days ago while in mid use my PC started to slow, applications running slow forcing me to try and close them via the task manager (ctrl-alt-delete).

Since then I have rebooted the machine numerous times (which brings its own problems, background processes not terminatinating - resulting in promts to End task) and run AVG virus software to detect any viruses as well as Ad Aware to root out any spyware that may be causing the slow down. None of them have resulted in any improved performace.

When the machine fires up, it reaches the log on screen as per usual with no delay, but entering any one of three user log ons results in the same problem.

IE, for that matter any application takes an age to open up. Switching between applications takes nearly as long.

I've done a brief search on the net to see if such a problem has been reported before but I can't find anything similar to this. I haven't downloaded any new programs which may have caused the slow down and cannot find any way to diagnose the problem.

Anyone come across anything similar or have any suggestions on how I can isolate the problem?

This sounds like a runaway process that is trying to hide itself in the background. Let me guess when you open the Task Manager, your CPU is pegged at 100% (as that is the only thing that will slow down XP). Click on the Processes tab and see what processes are causing the problem. Most likely a legacy program with bad memory management or spyware. Ad Aware is lacking in the scumware detection these days so use one of the programs linked to by "iwinweekly.com" above.

While restoring or reformatting are quick fixes, I would use restore points as the second to last option and formatting as the last option since both are destructive and will cause lost settings, programs and the like.

Restore doesn't appear it will be a viable option as the available restore date is 20th December 2003 (yesterday) but the problem first arose on Thursday of last week. Doesn't allow me to scroll back a month either.

Run both the apps from the linsk above, didn't use Hijack This to remove anything as its results were too ambigous for me to be sure enough to hit delete on anything. Did use Spybot which found 18 odd instances, deleted those but no change in performance.
W. Luke, you're absoultely correct, CPU useage is at 100%. There are a whole host of processes running but I can see the one running at 99%. File called evntsvc.exe.

Going to do some research via google on this file name and see what I get.